MARINES DISRUPT SUMMER FIGHTING

Starting in about February, the Marines stepped up combat operations in previously uncontested areas of northern Helmand province.

That forced insurgents to fight during the spring poppy harvest and made the traditional “summer fighting season” fizzle, said Maj. Gen. David Berger, commanding general of Task Force Leatherneck and its roughly 10,000 Marines and sailors in southwestern Afghanistan, plus a battalion of Georgians.

It “really set the insurgency back on its heels in the north,” Berger said. “This was about — from the poppy harvest season on — absolutely not letting them have any chance to get out of the starting blocks with any kind of momentum.”

In late May, Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment and Alpha Company of the 1st Tank Battalion moved into an area of Kajaki called Zamindawar and stayed more than two weeks.

During that iteration of Operation Jaws, they killed more than 50 insurgents, according to Marine officials.

The assault operations in the outlying areas are key to developing the Afghan forces in more populated central areas, said Lt. Col. Jason Perry, commanding officer of 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment.

“As we conduct operations farther out, that’s where the fighting occurs and it relieves pressure on the Afghan national security forces,” Perry said. It also disrupts the flow of enemy fighters and their weapons, he said.